Archive for ‘Associated Press’

Robbed! Blown call costs Armando Galarraga a perfect game

By ‘Duk

It was a bang-bang play that left two victims dead. The first was the masterful perfect game bid of Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga(notes). The second was the reputation of major league umpire Jim Joyce.

Galarraga will likely move on with his major league career with the stinging Harvey Haddix-type knowledge that only one of the worst blown calls in baseball history prevented him from becoming the 21st pitcher to throw a perfect game — and, even more incredibly — the third perfecto this season and second in four nights.

You can’t say the same for Joyce, a 23-year veteran who coupled his name with Don Denkinger when he inexplicably called Cleveland’s Jason Donald(notes) safe at first with an infield hit. Replays clearly showed that Galarraga’s foot beat Donald to the bag by a full step and Tigers manager Jim Leyland chewed Joyce out — deservedly so — both directly after the play and right after Galarraga retired the next Indians batter for what basically amounted to a 28-out perfect game.

Who are we to judge? How much do we know about this … nothing? The issue we want to bring is the one of hypocrisy among the “good moral” Republicans. These guys sell themselves as the good guys. At the end of the day, they should be looking for different selling points, because they are as good or as bad as everybody else in the world.

Muevete

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By JIM DAVENPORT Associated Press Writer

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — After going AWOL for seven days, Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday that he’d secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he’d been having an affair. He apologized to his wife and four sons and said he will resign as head of the Republican Governors Association.

“I’ve let down a lot of people, that’s the bottom line,” the 49-year-old governor said at a news conference where he choked up as he ruminated with remarkable frankness on God’s law, moral absolutes and following one’s heart. His family did not attend.

The woman, who lives in Argentina, has been a “dear, dear friend” for about eight years but, Sanford said, the relationship didn’t become romantic until a little over a year ago. He’s seen her three times since then, and his wife found out about it five months ago.

He told reporters he spent “the last five days of my life crying in Argentina” and the affair is now over. Sanford, a rumored 2012 presidential candidate, refused to say whether he’ll leave office.

“no matter how much we want to fudge it … the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable.” But he still implored the University of Notre Dame’s graduating class and all in the U.S. to stop “reducing those with differing views to caricature. Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words. It’s a way of life that always has been the Notre Dame tradition.”

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez on Saturday rejected a U.S. report alleging that drug trafficking is soaring in Venezuela, stepping up his criticism of President Barack Obama following the U.S. leader’s Jan. 20 inauguration. The State Department report, which covers global anti-drug efforts in 2008, was compiled while President George W.

Bush was in office but approved this month by the Obama administration. “Is there really a new government in the United States, or is Bush still in charge?” Chavez told supporters in a poor Caracas neighborhood. “Don’t mess with me, Mr. Obama.” The report asserts that drug trafficking soared fivefold in Venezuela from 50 metric tons (55 tons) of illegal drugs in 2002 to an estimated 250 metric tons (275 tons) in 2007 as cartels took advantage of the country’s “geography, corruption, a weak judicial system, incompetent and in some cases complicit security forces and lack of international counternarcotics cooperation.”

It said Chavez’s government had refused to cooperate on most joint anti-drug efforts, rejected U.S. criticism and accused the U.S. government of working with drug traffickers. Chavez suspended cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in 2005, accusing its agents of espionage. Two DEA agents still work in Venezuela, but embassy officials say their efforts have been severely restricted. Chavez on Friday dismissed an annual State Department assessment of human rights around the world that highlighted what it called Venezuela’s politicized judiciary, corruption and harassment of the political opposition and the news media.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — As President Hugo Chavez intensifies his anti-Israel campaign, some Venezuelans have taken action, threatening Jews in the street and vandalizing the largest synagogue in Caracas — where they stole a database of names and addresses.

Now many in Venezuela’s Jewish community fear the worst is yet to come.

Chavez has personally taken care not to criticize Israelis or Jews while accusing Israel’s government of genocide against the Palestinians. He vehemently denies inciting religious intolerance, let alone violence.

But Venezuela’s Jewish leaders, the Organization of American States and the U.S. State Department say Chavez’s harsh criticism has inspired a growing list of hate crimes, including a Jan. 30 invasion of Caracas’ largest synagogue.

About 15 people overpowered two security guards at the Tiferet Israel Synagogue, shattering religious objects and spray-painting “Jews, get out” on the walls. Most worrisome, according to Elias Farache, president of the Venezuelan-Israelite Association, was their theft of a computer database containing many names and addresses of Jews in Venezuela.

Police are now posted outside and authorities are investigating, but nobody has been arrested.

One week before the attack, a Chavista columnist named Emilio Silva posted a call to action on Aporrea, a pro-government Web site, describing Jews as “filthy” anti-Chavez conspirators and exhorting Venezuelans to confront them.

“Publicly challenge every Jew that you find in the street, shopping center or park,” he wrote, “shouting slogans in favor of Palestine and against that abortion: Israel.”

Silva called for protests at the synagogue, a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, seizures of Jewish-owned property, the closure of Jewish schools and a nationwide effort “to denounce publicly, with names and last names the members of powerful Jewish groups present in Venezuela.”

Aporrea later replaced the column with an apology that describes Silva’s posting as anti-Semitic and exhorts Chavistas to show more discipline by criticizing the Israeli government rather than its people or Jews in general.

Silva, a 35-year-old mathematics professor at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela, got the message. He told The Associated Press Friday that he couldn’t comment on the “controversial subject,” and that his “position is to condemn any act that goes against the integrity of any faith or conviction.”

But other anti-Semitic writings by Silva remained on the site Friday, including one posted on Jan. 19, a week before the synagogue attack. That posting also crudely criticized a Venezuelan archbishop for failing to condemn Israel’s Gaza offensive; offices of the Vatican have been tear gassed twice since then.

With criticism mounting, Chavez phoned Farache Thursday night in a conversation broadcast live on state television, and vowed to guarantee the safety of Venezuela’s 15,000 Jews. He condemned the synagogue attack. But he also suggested that it might have been an inside job, and demanded that Jewish leaders publicly recant accusations against his government.

Farache responded saying “we have acted in good faith and with the best intentions to guarantee the tranquility of our community.” He also said that Jews hoped to avoid being exploited by the opposition or by Chavez supporters in the leadup to Venezuela’s constitutional referendum vote on Feb. 15. “Our community is apolitical,” he said.

Hate crimes have escalated despite Chavez’s declaration that his government “rejects any type of aggression against any temple, be it Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, or any other.” A week before the synagogue attack, the Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations gave the attorney general’s office a list of more than a dozen threats against Jews.

The group said one threat involved a rabbi who was leaving a Jewish school in Caracas when two men, one wielding a broken bottle, shouted: “Jew, we are coming for you!” A nearby taxi driver offered refuge and sped him away.

Other Jews have stopped wearing yarmulkes while walking to temple on Friday evenings. Simon Galante said he and his brother now fear for their safety after being accosted by men on motorcycles yelling “Murderers!”

“Thank God, nothing more occurred … we continued walking and ignored the comments, but it’s very sad,” said Galante, who joined a demonstration against the attacks this week.

For some, fear turned to outrage when Chavez suggested his adversaries could be trying to give ammunition to those who accuse him of anti-Semitism. This idea has been promoted in pro-government media outlets that have accused Jews of conspiring against the government.

Venezuela’s Jews include many survivors of World War II, as well as families that have been Venezuelan for two centuries. In the past, Chavez’s enthusiastic support of Iran and other enemies of Israel has done little to threaten their coexistence in an overwhelmingly Catholic country.

Now many Jews fear more trouble ahead.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Los Angeles, California-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, believes Chavez’s rhetoric “has encouraged this atmosphere of hatred which is now being directed against Jews.”

“His hostility against the state of Israel has a ripple effect,” Hier told the AP in a telephone interview. “Those who support him, and listen to his words, are disposed to dislike Jews.”

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned his Colombian counterpart that war would break out between the South American neighbors if Colombia’s military crossed into Venezuelan territory.
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Chavez railed on Saturday against Colombian forces for entering Ecuadorean territory on a raid that killed a senior commander of Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, and he cautioned President Alvaro Uribe against similar actions along Venezuela’s border.

“Don’t think about doing that over here, because it would very serious, it would be cause for war,” Chavez said. “How far is President Uribe willing to go in his warlike madness?”

By IAN JAMES

The Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela | Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Colombia’s president a “pawn” of the U.S. government and compared him to a mafia boss on Sunday, raising tensions in a dispute that erupted during mediation efforts to free rebel-held hostages.

Chavez reiterated accusations that President Alvaro Uribe’s U.S.-allied government tried to sabotage the release of two hostages last month, saying the captives’ accounts of a bombing by the military in the area showed Colombia aimed to “dynamite” the handover.

The two Colombian captives — Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez — were eventually released by guerrillas to Venezuelan officials in a Jan. 10 mission overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Colombia halted military operations for the successful handover and has denied trying to sabotage an earlier attempt.

The food security (alimentary security) of a country should has (definitively) “National Interest” level. So, the fact hugo is worried about it sounds no only logical but plausible. What he failed to mention is, this is their method of preference to take out private investors and businesses. In this case – like many other in the past years – he imposes a price control over a product that will force the producers to sell with loses. They can do that right? So, the state emerge as the benefactor and bring the products to the control price. Of course they (government) loose money in the operation, but let ask the question again, can they do that? Yes, they can loss money because they have the mentality of a rich grandchild (money grows on trees) and they have a purpose (people will be happy with the milk at the control price). After a while, the private company have to disappear, and the government stop importing the product and this just disappear from the market. Welcome to the 21st century socialism.

He says he will take over their farms or milk plants if they sell to buyers abroad

The Venezuelan president says he will ‘bring in the Army’ if necessary

In the face of a milk shortage, Chavez likened selling dairy abroad to “treason”

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to take over farms or milk plants if owners refuse to sell their milk for domestic consumption and instead seek higher profits abroad or from cheese-makers.

With the country recently facing milk shortages, Chavez said “it’s treason” if farmers deny milk to Venezuelans while selling it across the border in Colombia or for gourmet cheeses.

“In that case the farm must be expropriated,” Chavez said, adding that the government could also take over milk plants and properties of beef producers.

“I’m putting you on alert,” Chavez said. “If there’s a producer that refuses to sell the product … and sells it at a higher price abroad … ministers, find me the proof so it can be expropriated.”

Addressing his Cabinet, he said: “If the army must be brought in, you bring in the army.”